Life in the Shepherd Hemisphere
by McLove
Summary: Sequel to 'This thing called Life'. Meredith and Derek overcame their bumpy roads 3 years ago. with 2 kids to take care of what happens when suddenly there's more than usual in the Shepherd buffet plate. REad and Find out. R
1. Routine

**Hey Guys, well first of all i want to say that i got attached to 'This thing called life' so this is the sequel. plus i feel like it was too much drama there. Not that is bad but still I wanted to write here how it is now in the Shepherd family. Happier times. Sure drama is eventually going to come but i swear no more addictions for Meredith. **

** I'll try to update as much as possible because i know what it feels to like a story and never have updates for it .****Please read and let me know what you think. Without reviews I can't tell whether you want more or nothing at all.**

**Enjoy. McLove.****  
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"Derek " Meredith shouted at Derek. "Come on, I'm going to be late, really late if you don't hurry up" she told him picking up her hair in a pony tail.

Derek came out of the bathroom after taking a shower. He was still asleep in some degree.

"Finally" she told him. Making her way out of her room. "You finish while I get the boys" she told him.

"I'll be there in 10" he told her.

"Ok" she said.

Derek went to the closet to grab a pair of jeans and a shirt. Yesterday he had come home at 3 and it was 7 in the morning today, so he was specially tired. Plus the stress and demands of his wife were much. Of course he didn't have to do it but he wanted to. She was the best, strongest person he could've imagine. Of course he hadn't imagine she would change so much in 9 years. Meredith had gone from insecure, always edgy to confident ruler in the last 2 and half years. Derek was so proud of her words couldn't even describe how he felt. She had grown out of all the daddy abandonment issues and had taken charge of her life. No wonder he fell in love with her all over again each morning.

He stepped out of his room and into the hallway of their house's second floor. He made his way to the other wing of their house where his kids bedroom were located. He went into Ian's room first seeing as it was the first one that came into view. He watched his son played with the toys that were in his crib. Ian Thaddeus Shepherd Grey. His first born. Derek went into the room that was painted soft blue. It looked like a baseball camp in there. The lamp was a baseball bat. He remembered how Meredith had wanted everything to be about baseball.

As soon as Ian saw him he motion his hands in there air. "Daddy" the little boy said. Ian was the spit image of Derek. His dark handsome hair and his big expression eyes. He was- as Meredith liked to call it- Dada's boy. He was also the serious child. It came with the name, Derek assured Meredith the first time she pointed out.

"Hi buddy" Derek said cheerfully picking the almost 3 year old up from his crib. "How is daddy's big boy?" he said. Ian was all smiles when it came to his dad. Ian was protective of Meredith, he had made it obvious the first time he seen her cry because his brother was sick. Ian had called his baby brother 'bad' for 2 weeks.

"Let's go see if mommy needs help ok Ian?" he told the boy picking up the shoe he had taken off.

"Okay, Daddy" he told his dad. Even when his mom had woken him up 3 hours earlier than what he normally sleep he still wasn't the type of baby to get cranky. "Daddy, mommy give me 3 kisses" he told his dad.

"Wow. That's a lot of kisses. What did you do?" he asked walking towards his smallest kid room.

"I was a good boy" he told his dad excitingly.

"Thank you for been such a good boy to mommy." he said giving his son a kiss.

They came into the light green painted room that was next to Ian's. In here it looked like the had stepped into a fishing store. Yes he had gotten away with decorating one of the boys room of fishes. Meredith had thought it was a bad idea. But in the end it had helped when it was time to the laundry. With her idea of making it a replica of Ian's room she would have been in trouble. So it had been decided, blue was Ian's color and Green was Rhys color.

They came in enough to see Meredith styling Rhys hair. Rhys Vladimir Shepherd Grey. His sweet yet stubborn child. He was a bossy one, and looked like the one year younger version of Ian. Meredith would always say that as much as they looked like each other, their characters couldn't be more apart. But still it was refreshing to have two kids that were his yet didn't act the same or cried the same or ate the same. Nature was a mystery. Sure at 3 and 2 no one really knew what the person was going to be like but it sure as hell gave Derek an idea. One that told him he would have to make sure he kept his leash very short.

"Daddy!" Rhys said enthusiastically turning his head enough to cause Meredith to give up on it.

"Derek we have to take Rhys to get his hair cut" she said standing up straight away from the crib. She stretched and put her left hand on her back.

"I'll get them both a hair cut when Daddy comes off his shift" he said in a childish voice going in for a kiss by Rhys.

"Who's ready to go play?" he asked both of his boys.

"Me" the boys answered in union.

"Ok then let's go get in our seats so we can go" he said putting Ian down. He couldn't carry both of them down the stairs and if there was something the was a must in the Shepherd house since 3 years ago was equality. So he took Rhys out of his crib and held them both as they started to walk down the hall into the staircases.

"Bye Mommy" Rhys turned around and said to Meredith.

"Mommy is coming too boy. Right mommy?" he asked Meredith.

"Yes pumpkin" she told the little boy. After that they started to make their way out again.

"I'll get the bottles" Meredith announce behind him.

Meredith appeared 5 minutes later with her bag on one shoulder and two bottles on her hands. When she reached the car she opened the door and handed the bottles to each of their owners as she positioned her hand behind her back. She came to her seat and sighed and Derek hit reverse.

"You ok Baby?" he asked her concerned.

"Yeah." she said tired. "I'm fine" she put the Blues Clues DVD on for the kids.

"You sure, are you hurting?" he asked.

"I'm just tired Derek." she said.

"Well honey there's only 2 months to go" he reminded her.

"Easy for you to say your not the one carrying around two children that have decided your bladder is a pillow." she told him.

Derek sighed. Sure he hadn't used the best choice of words to reassure her. But going into her 8th month of pregnancy, there was little to say to Meredith that would be comforting.


	2. Freaking Out

Meredith was doing some paper work when her belly started to hurt again. She grunted and went back to writing on the file that she had. For the past week she was getting these pains not frequently but strong enough to make her stop for a second. Meredith got up and went to sit on the soft blue sofa she had in her office. Been an attending had its perks. Her very own office, plus she really didn't have to be running around like she did when she was an intern. She sat down remembering what it had been like to be an intern. Then becoming a resident was still stressful because she had to run her own set of annoying interns. That hadn't been easy either. Yeah, she thought, try doing in pregnant 18 months out of those 3 years.

She had been so scared when they had learned about Ian been on his way. For some time, most of that pregnancy she had been so scared of losing him too. But it hadn't happen Ian was living prove of that. The stress she had gone thru with Rhys pregnancy had put him at risk. She was so overwhelmed with been a new mom and finding out she was pregnant again. That had caused her to be mad at Derek for some time.

"What did mommy say?" she started talking to her belly, which currently looked like a double beach balloon. "You can move while I'm at work babies…it distracts mommy" she told her unborn children.

"You know bossing them around even before they are born might have its consequences in the future" Derek's voice came from the door.

"Hey" she said softly with her hands on her belly still.

"So, tell me on a scale of 1 to 10. How bad are the pains?" he asked her. Meredith hadn't said nothing but he knew. She was 8 months pregnant with 2 infants a demanding career and she still wasn't on maternity leave.

She sighed. Not really minding he knew she was hurting but loving that he knew even when she hadn't said a thing about it. That was Derek for her. Since their brief separation 4 years ago he hadn't broken the promise he had made.

"When they started it was a 4 maybe, but now its more like a 7" she told him as he came to sit down next to her.

"Babe don't you think is time for you to take the leave already?" he asked better than demanding. demanding with Meredith's condition would only get him in trouble.

"I guess. Its just I wanted to finish this case I was working on. Do the follow up, then I'm taking the leave." She told him.

"When will that be" he asked.

"I have post-op appointment tomorrow." She said leaning into him. "Derek, try not to worry. I told you I was going to carry them full term. I will" she told him kissing him briefly.

"It's not the babies I care about right now Mere. If your not good, their not good. So you have to be good." He told her caressing her hair.

"Don't worry I promise I'm out of here by tomorrow. Anyways I want to take this 3 weeks with the boys and bond, I don't want them to feel left out when these two come" she said.

It was so weird how she had come from been terrified of having kids to living for them. She was affected more by what happen to them then them themselves. She remember the first time Ian fell, she cried so much that night, Ian had only looked at his scratched knees and had said "boo boo". Those two kids were her life, her light. Meredith started to panic. God she was pregnant again, with twins. What was that going to do to Ian and Rhys? Could she handle it all?

"Der, shouldn't we find out the babies' sex, I mean we do have to paint the room already." She asked him.

"You said you didn't want to" he reminded her. He felt her go stiff. "Honey we will be fine. We can do this." He reassured her.

"Oh Derek, I just realize these may traumatize the boys" she confessed.

"Mere Ian and Rhys know they are going to be brothers. And we –both of us- together can do this." He told her.

"I love you" she told Derek.

"Not more than I love you" he answered.


	3. Pregnancy Hormones

"Rhys baby, mommy told you not to play with that." She told her youngest while she was sitting in the mock.

"Why?" he asked in his 2 year old language. Rhys was playing with a dirty gardening instrument Derek had left out in the back.

"Because is not one of your toys Rhys, Look go play trucks with Ian." She suggested.

"Why?" Rhys said looking between the very interesting looking object at his feet to the dark red truck that was in Ian's hands then back to his mother.

"Rhys please be a good boy. Daddy asked you to obey mommy when his not here" she reminded him.

Apparently that worked seen as Rhys went to his brother's side and started to play with him. She had gotten her maternity leave 5 days ago. 5 days that Rhys and Ian had been here at home with her. They had already broken a vase playing trucks that's why they were currently at in the yard. She had a millions things to do. Like buy baby clothes- other than white- for the babies. Today though she had her last check up with her ob-gyn. looking at her watch she wondered where the hell Izzie was.

Her phone rang and she picked it up. "Hello" she answered.

"Mere don't you hear the bell?" Izzie asked.

"I'm out in the back waiting for you" she said glancing towards her two little kids playing.

"Well I'm here. Be there in a minute" she said.

Ten minutes later Meredith was still giving Izzie instructions.

"No chips Izzie, I mean it" she said.

"This isn't the first time I baby sit, for god's sake. Plus I don't give Jonathan that either" she reminded Meredith.

"Right, well if something happens you know where to call. I'll try to be here with the next two hours." She said walking towards her kids to say goodbye.

"Ian, Rhys come and give mommy a kiss" she said. The two boys looked at her and at Jonathan too. As if they had communicated some other way other than talking, Jon kept playing while the other two approached her.

"Mommy is going to look at a picture of your …"she didn't know which to say. "brothers or sisters" she finished. " be good to Auntie Izzie" she told them.

"I love you Rhys" she said to the little one who was itching to go back to play. She kissed him and acknowledge her other one.

"I love you Ian" she told the boy. She made her way out of the house and into the car. She was late.

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The hospital never seemed the same to Derek when Meredith wasn't around. It was less than a week that she had left but still. She was used to her. Seen her in the hallway, in her office all day at work then at home. Some might think he was crazy or just a hypocrite but he actually enjoy been 24 hours around her. And it wasn't that he was used to her already, that it had become a routine. It was the simple fact he needed her to feel complete. Taking the elevator he pressed the ob-gyn floor. Today was their last check up before the babies were born. He went into Dr. Kenner's office.

"Dr. Shepherd come right in Dr. Grey-Shepherd just got here a few minutes ago" the receptionist asked him at the window.

"Thank you" he said coming in and going to find Meredith.

She was laying in the bed with her gown on. "Hey" she said seeing him. She felt warm the instant she saw him enter the room. She wanted to tell him something but Dr. Kenner entered right behind him.

"Dr. Shepherd." He greeted Derek. "Meredith, how are those two in there doing?" he asked her.

"That's why I'm here." She told him.

"Alright let's see if these two are good to go" he said.

He put the jelly on her belly and went to the monitor. He searched and looked at the monitor for a few minutes.

"Ok so they are fine Meredith. They are ready to come any minute now. Remember if you haven't gone into labor by the 13th we have to induce it" Dr. Keener said. "is there anything else you gives have questions about?" he asked looking at both of them.

"Thank you" she told him. When they were alone Derek reached for her hand to help her get up when she retrieved it.

"What?" he asked.

"I want sex" she told him bluntly.

Pregnancy made Meredith horny. Very, extremely horny. This wasn't the first time she wanted sex after checking up on the babies. It was appropriate for them now. And not even safe with her going into labor anything now, but he wanted as much as she did. They were bunnies. Plus they were experts on improvising positions. He reached her hand and she changed position to doggy. Meredith needed this as much as she needed to get these two little devils out of her.

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** Hey guyz. Well i hope your liking it. Remember READ & REVIEW!!!!!**


	4. Dinner Date

After dropping the kids at Christina's the next afternoon they went shopping. Meredith wanted to get at least the necessaries. Like diapers, and blankets. She needed to get some clothes too. She would opt now for neutral colors. She had already decided she was going to paint the room a soft peach. If she had boys she would darken it or something. They were in the car driving now to get some dinner. Meredith was hungry.

"What happens if we have boys again?" she asked Derek while she eat a candy bar.

"Stop eating that your not going to eat when we get there" he told her.

"I'm hungry Derek, we..." she said pointing at her belly. "...are hungry".

"It would be awesome" Derek said,

"What?" she asked confused.

"If we have boys it will be awesome." he repeated.

"Yeah well I don't think can deal with 5 of your egos." she told him.

Her due date was 2 weeks away now, which meant at any time her water could break. She was calm. After going into labor with Ian on her way back from Halloween in New York it couldn't get any worst than that. Sure she hadn't pushed two babies out in the same hour.

"I want to get this over with" she said tired.

"What?" he asked.

"This Derek, feeling fat all the time" she told him as they were parking in the restaurant.

"Your not fat Mere, you are glowingly pregnant" he told her.

"No need for compliments sugar at the rate of my hormones tonight we'll be getting it on before we even eat" she told him walking up to the waitress.

"Mere, can we do this like if we were dating. Think of it that way. It's our first day" he told her when they were heading towards the intimate corner of Meredith's favorite craving.

"You'll date a very pregnant person?" she asked.

"I'll date you with 10 kids and 5 on the way" he told her sweetly.

"I hope your not hinting how many kids you want because if you want more kids after these, your having them" she told him looking at her menu.

"I was thinking" he started.

"I want the lamb" she said closing the menu.

"I should get a vasectomy" he told her.

"A what?" she said sounding surprise.

"Vasectomy. I mean we aren't going to have any more kids. And to make sure it doesn't happen I can get a vasectomy." he said.

"Derek honey I am thinking about my lamb and going home and having sex with my best friends- your penis-, I don't want to imagine you doing any type of cutting to it" she said. "We'll just use protection" she told him.

"Mere we wanted to do that after Ian." he reminder her.

"Ok point taken. Can we talk about something else" she said.

"Names" he blurred out.

"That's right" these two don't have a name yet" she said.

"I want thinking Derek Jr." he said testing her.

"You didn't get away with it with Ian your not getting away with these either" she said.

They eat and enjoy dinner and each other like if it was new to them. Not like they did this at least one night a week. Yeah even with two kids. They made it a point to get away at least once during the week to have alone- married- time. It kept their marriage alive. Mark and Izzie got together and had Jonathan and Christina had meet Steve and had Melanie. It had been triple dating a while but after she had Ian Mark and Izzie had divorced. Meredith remember how close she and Derek had come to doing the same. But they had saved the marriage. It wasn't like they had cheated on each other either.

When they had gotten the kids from Christina's they were beat. Falling asleep on their seats on the way home. Tomorrow was going to be a stressing day. Derek had to paint so she couldn't be in the house and at this point she hated the idea of having to spend any more than 30 minutes in the backyard. She wanted to get everything else organized soon. Because she wanted to believe that her babies wanted to get out as much as she wanted them to get out. Tomorrow was pizza day seeing as Steve, Mark, George, and Alex were coming to help get things done faster. Izzie would be here too, she wasnt going to cook. Not in a millon years.

She landed in bed exhausted. She wanted to get some sleep before tomorrow started. But not without some McSex first she decided.

"I love you" she told Derek drifting off to sleep some time later.

"I love you too" he said resting his hand on her belly "all of you" he said.


	5. Derek doesn't scream

"Ian Thaddeus Shepherd Grey" Derek said angrily at his son. He went to where the kids where playing and bend to his size.

"Say sorry Ian. You don't hit girls. You don't hit anyone, especially not girls. Say sorry" he told his son.

"But daddy, she took my truck, I gave her my old truck but she took mine" he told his dad very mad in his own words.

"Ian, she is a girl.Treat her good." he told him. "Now let's go, you earned a time out" he told him.

"Daddy" Ian said confused.

"Ian let's go" Derek said stronger now making Ian cry.

Meredith had been in the kitchen getting some plastic cups she had. Now that she had little ones in the house everything was child prove. This was turning out to be a picnic instead of a helping day. Izzie and Alex were there with Jonathan, which made the Mark situation very uncomfortable. George and Kathy were here too. Steve had brought Melanie and Kyle to be here, and they were going to stayover. But Meredith didn't really mind, this people were their friends so if helping them get their twins room organize meant they had to host, she had no problems. She was coming out of the kitchen when Izzie approached her.

"What's wrong with McDreamy?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Meredith asked looking at Derek.

"Well he yelled at Ian right now" Izzie announced.

"Derek?" Meredith asked surprise. She looked over trying to find Ian. She saw him sitting down in one of the benches that were outside. "Derek doesn't scream" she told izzie.

"Well, he just did, plus he punished Ian" Izzie informed.

Meredith let it go the rest of the day. She was too occupied to ask Derek why was it that made him punished Ian. Her friends had been gone by night fall, leaving the twins bedroom looking very peachy and really cute with two cribs at each end of the nursery. She had picked up right after everyone had cleared out. She wanted to have the house as ready as possible because in any minute her life would change to very complicated. She had bathe all four little ones who were now sitting in the couch of the upstairs family room watching cartoons. All the kids were going to sleep in the guess room. It made it convinient, plus her kids wouldn't have it any other way when their cousins were there. She wanted to give them a snack before they went to bed.

"I'm going to get yogurt, who wants?" she asked.

"Me" Rhys was the first to jump at the news.

"I want too" Kyle said.

"Aunty Mere, do you have strawberry? Because it's my favorite" a very perky Melanie said.

"Mel remember cousin Rhys gets sick if he eats strawberry?" she asked.

"Well but I like it. Ian likes it too." she said. For a 3 and half year old she was very pushy.

"She does that a lot" Kyle said to a confused Rhys.

"Tell you what, I promise I'll get some strawberry next time. Now I have banana. U want?" she asked.

"Ok" Melanie said turning to the T.V. again. Meredith smiled and looked at Ian who hadn't said anything about wanting yogurt, or about anything at all that day. She went to his side and sat down next to him.

"Ian baby, do you want yogurt?" she asked. Ian looked at her for a minute and shook his shoulders hinting he didn't know.

"Well is your tummy talking to you?" she asked.

"A little" he said.

"Ok, that means your hungry. I'll get you one. Ok?" she said.

"I guess" he answered.

Ian was a very talkative little boy. Needing an answer for everything but since this afternoon he hadn't utter more than a handful of words. She didn't like to see her son like that. She made her way to the kitchen to get the yogurts for the kids when she spotted Derek coming in from taking the trash out.

"Hey" she said.

"I just took out the trash" he said.

"Ok…" Meredith replied.

He left as soon as he finished his statement and Meredith shook off the feeling that sat in the pit of her stomach. She got the yogurts and went to give them to the kids. Half an hour and a dozen kisses later she was taking a bath tired as hell wanting nothing more than to get some sleep.


	6. I'll Tell you when I'm not mad

She woke up the next morning to Ian's screams. Thinking something was wrong with him she got out of bed put her robe and went to make her way to where the kids were. Maybe he had a nightmare, she thought. She was dumb founded by what was going on when she got there.

"Ian your making this impossible" Derek was screaming at a crying Ian.

"No" Ian said as he faugh Derek who was trying to get him dressed.

"Ian Thaddeus Shepherd Grey, if you don't stop crying this second your going to be in big trouble" Derek said sounding past frustrated. Ian kept crying while Melanie and Kyle were dressed watching and Rhys was sitting disturbed in the crib. The next thing Meredith knew Derek was bringing his hand into position to hit Ian. She didn't know what was going on but it was obvious Derek needed help and this wasn't a way to deal with it.

"Derek" she shouted. Making him retrieve and turn around to see her. "What's going on here" she asked.

"Ian has decided to act out and make me late for a meeting." Derek said. She went pass him and picked Ian up who was still crying.

"It's Ok Ian" she said soothing him down. "Kyle can you take Mel and Rhys down to breakfast I'll be there in a minute" she told the 5 year old. "Ian baby, go with cousin Kyle so we can have waffles" she told a puffy eyed 3 year old.

"What do you think your doing?" Derek asked as the kids were down the hallway.

"Derek, sorry Ian is making you late, but it's fine" she told him.

"No it's not Meredith, I'm late" Derek said angrily.

"Well Derek, if your late than leave them here. I'll take them" she told him calming down Ian.

"It's not about that. Ian has to obey me" he said.

"And your going to beat him into obedience?" she asked. Her anger was rising. Whatever was going on with Derek he had to fix it. Deal with it himself. Not take it out on the kids.

"I wasn't going to hit him" he said.

"It didn't look that way from where I was standing" she pointed out.

"Well maybe you weren't as awake to know the difference. I was. I've been trying to dress him for 10 minutes now." he said.

"You should've woke me when he started to give you trouble" she said.

"I'm his dad Meredith, I shouldn't have to call you because I can't deal with him" Derek said angry.

"Well you can't. Next time call me. I don't mind" she said.

"Well why don't we tell them they don't have to obey me while we're at it, right?" he said.

"I don't know what your problem is but no one is telling you your not a good dad." she told him.

"You know Meredith sometimes I don't need you to use words to know what you mean" he said. " but if that's the way you want it, fine. There all yours" he said walking out of the room.

Meredith was still at a lost for words when she walked into SGH that afternoon to pick up her sons. The fight that morning still made no sense to her. She hadn't said she didn't want him to be involved with their sons. She just didn't understand why all of the sudden Derek was acting like such an ass. Besides still been confused from that morning, she was getting pains that were killing her. She didn't want to give into them so she kept of with her day. She got everything she had needed for the twins with the execption of clothes. She and Izzie had argued yesterday about a baby shower seeing as Derek and her had bought everything else for the babies and the two mothers came to the agreement that when the twins came their clothes were on everyone that would've been invited to the shower.

She saw Christina on her way to the day care and had briefly talked about a consult she had had. When she made her way into the daycare she saw Derek outside the doors looking through the glass. Seeing him there made her realize she was furious still from this morning. She was getting closer to the door when Derek notice her.

"Hey" he said.

She didn't acknowledge him at first but before she went inside to pick the kids up she decided that she didn't want to fight in front of them so she turned around and made her way to him. Derek was going to say something when she stopped him.

"You don't get to say anything to me. I don't want to hear it" she said angry. "If it wasn't because I'm pregnant and I don't want to regret saying something hurtful because of my hormones, make no mistake this would be a fight" she announced. "Instead, I will let you know when I'm over been mad at you" she told him. "Till then, don't even try it" she warned him leaving to get Ian and Rhys.

Derek felt like an ass. He had no right to treat Ian bad. It wasn't his fault the people from the board were so hardheaded. He had also been wrong to accuse Meredith. He paced his office needing to punch something. He was infuriated with himself. The worst part was that he hadn't even been able to explain to Meredith what his problem was. Still he couldn't let Meredith get over this alone. She was pregnant and he knew Meredith. She would slowly start drowning herself in this and when he address it, it would be too late. Plus it was better to catch something from the root than let it flourish. He had experienced a tree of a problem 4 years ago and he didn't want to do it again. He grab his coat and made his way out of SGH an went towards his house, where a very angry Meredith and two little boy were. His world.


End file.
